


home home home (it's where the heart is)

by to-a-merrier-world (wayward_wolves)



Series: Love and Other Ways to Die [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Artist Klaus, Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Light Angst, M/M, Not Adopted By Reginald AU, detective diego
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 19:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18505318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wayward_wolves/pseuds/to-a-merrier-world
Summary: Written for the "ways to say 'i love you'" prompt: As a hello.--Diego had a rough day at work, but coming home to Klaus makes everything a little bit better.





	home home home (it's where the heart is)

Diego eased the car into park, turned it off, and then leaned back with a heavy sigh, closing his eyes.

It’d been a long day.

For the most part, he loved his job. Sure, he had to see some of the worst humanity had to offer, but he also got to put a good number of that worst behind bars. He could help people—protect them. Bring justice for their loved ones.

But some days, it was hard to love a job that made him knock on a mother’s door to tell her that her daughter was never coming home.

Fifteen years old and OD’d at a party. So young. Way too fucking young.

Diego sighed again, and looked up at his building. He could see his apartment from the street—third floor, right-most corner—and the light was on, telling him Klaus was already home.

Klaus… another reason that case had been a rough one. Every OD reminded him of Klaus and what could have been—or even could still be, if Klaus ever fell off the wagon. It made all his organs twist sharply inside of him, his whole body rejecting the idea of losing him.

Klaus had been in recovery for years now, had actually just gotten sober for the last time when they met four years ago. Funnily enough—at least according to Patch—they’d met at an open-mic night at a coffee shop. Diego had been there for Luther—a relationship he wasn’t even going to begin trying to explain, but suffice to say, they had been college roommates; and Klaus had been there with a group of people in support of his adoptive sister, Vanya.

Luther was reading poetry he’d written, while Vanya played the violin. And Diego and Klaus had made out in the bathroom during intermission.

They’d been together ever since.

But Diego knew how hard recovery was for Klaus, knew how much he’d struggled in the beginning and how hard it could get, even years later, when something triggered a sudden craving.

Diego had always been bad at letting things go, and he loved Klaus so much that even the vaguest thought of something happening made him queasy.

He was so lost in his own head that he jumped violently and very nearly went for his gun when someone’s car backfired at the end of the street.

He sighed again, rubbing a hand over his face and short-cropped hair.

He should get out of the car and go inside. He’d been out here way too long.

He stepped out, locking the door behind him, and slowly made his way into his building, his feet dragging up the two flights of stairs to his apartment. He dug around for his keys and then, finally, he was home.

Before he could so much as get out a “I’m home,” Klaus was whirling into the room like a particularly enthusiastic tornado. He was in his painting outfit—an old t-shirt of Diego’s Klaus had turned into a crop-top paired with a flowy, ankle-length black skirt and bare feet, all of it (and him) splattered in paint.

“ _Babe_ , you won’t believe it, I _finally_ finished the Redding’s piece! It’s been weeks of staring at it and thinking about how _shit_ it was and wondering how the hell I was going to make something _amazing_ out of garbage, but I _did it!_ Come, come, come, you have to see!”

He grabbed Diego’s wrist and dragged him into his painting room—the second bedroom of their two bedroom apartment. Diego followed along without resistance, the tension he’d been carrying all day finally starting to drain the longer he spent in Klaus’s presence.

Klaus maneuvered him so he was standing directly in front of the canvas, and then moved to stand closer and gesture at the piece.

“I don’t know _what_ I’d been thinking with the blue, before, I mean _obviously_ this is such an orange piece! And then the lighting, god, _obviously_ everything needed to be _so much brighter_. Who was I trying to be, fucking Caravaggio? Pfft, please. But, but!! Look at this, here! God, I swear, I was fucking _inspired_ when I did that, it was like an epiphany or some shit, oh my god. Ugh, anyway, I could go on forever, but what do you think?”

Diego didn’t understand art, not the way Klaus did, so everything Klaus made was beautiful, if confusing, to him. He was about to open his mouth and say just that, but Klaus’s eyes suddenly widened and he gasped dramatically, covering his mouth with both hands.

“Oh, shit, I did it again! Sorry, sorry, I was just so excited. Let me try again.”

Klaus cleared his throat and stepped forward, resting his arms on Diego’s shoulder’s in a loose almost-hug.

“Welcome home, baby, how was your day?” he asked sweetly.

Diego couldn’t help but burst into laughter, reaching up to cradle Klaus’s face in his hands and bring him closer to kiss.

“I love you so much,” Diego said between huffs of laughter and barely-there kisses.

Klaus hummed and deepened their kiss momentarily before pulling away with a happy grin.

“I love you, too.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, Diego’s heart feeling full to bursting. Klaus eventually frowned, something about Diego alerting him to his earlier bad mood. It was like he had a sixth sense or something.

“Are you okay?”

Diego took a deep breath and sighed, leaning his head against Klaus’s shoulder.

“Long day,” he said heavily.

Klaus paused, lifting a hand to pet Diego’s head. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Diego shook his head.

“…Want me to keep talking about my art?”

Diego huffed a laugh and lifted his head.

“Sounds perfect.”

Klaus grinned. “Great, because I have _a lot_ to say about it.”

Diego smiled and slipped out of Klaus’s hold, catching his hand and pressing a kiss to it.

“Tell me everything.”


End file.
